Saturday, 2 March 2013

On the way back to Dublin from Ardmore, Co Waterford, just as dusk was about to cover the countryside of the south-east, I stopped on the road between Clonmel and Callan, and took a detour off the N24 up the slopes of Slievenamon in south Co Tipperary, to see the ruins of the old churchyard and the ruins of Kilcash Castle, which is famed in song, folklore and legend.

The manor of Kilcash passed from the Wall family to the Ormond Butlers of Kilkenny Castle in the 16th century, and played an important part in the story of the Ormond Butlers for many generations. John Butler of Kilcash, the third son of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, was the first of the family to live at Kilcash Castle, and his descendants eventually became heirs to the Ormond titles and estates.

The ruins of Kilcash Church ... four of five generation of the Comerford family were buried in the chancel from the late 17th century on (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

I first stopped to visit Kilcash Church, where four of five generation of the Comerford family were buried in the chancel from the late 17th century on.

This is a mediaeval church with a fine Romanesque doorway. Some of the 18th century headstones in the church and the churchyard are carved with elaborate crucifixion scenes. The church was partly repaired in the 1980s, but the graveyard is overgrown and the gravestones were difficult to read in the fading light.

The Butler Mausoleum to the east of Kilcash Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

A few paces to the east of the church, the Butler mausoleum in the churchyard is almost as large as the church itself. The Butlers buried inside include Christopher Butler (1673–1757) of Kilcash, who succeeded as Archbishop of Cashel after Archbishop Edward Comerford died in 1710; his sister in-law, Margaret Butler, previously Lady Iveagh, Viscountess Iveagh (died 1744); their nephew, Walter Butler, de jure 16th Earl of Ormond (1703-1783); and his son, John Butler (1740-1795), 17th Earl of Ormond.

Kilcash Castle ... now in a perilous state and cladded in scaffolding (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

A little further up the hillside, Kilcash Castle has a fortified tower dating from the 16th century, and the ruins of an adjoining hall that was added at a later date.

The castle is best known for the song A Lament for Kilcash (Caoine Cill Chaise), which mourns the death of Margaret Butler, Viscountess Iveagh (d. 1744). She was born Lady Margaret Burke, daughter of the Earl of Clanrickarde. Her first husband, Brian Maginnis (Mac Guinness), Viscount Iveagh, was attainted as a Jacobite in 1691. She was widowed when he died fighting in the Austrian imperial army, and in 1696 she then married her second husband Colonel Thomas Butler (died 1738) of Kilcash Castle.

Although Thomas Butler was a member of the Church of Ireland, the couple sheltered a number of Gaelic poets and Catholic priests and bishops, including Archbishop Christopher Butler, in Kilcash Castle.

When John Butler (1740-1795) established his rights as the 17th Earl of Ormond, the family moved to Kilkenny Castle. By 1800, parts of the Kilcash estate were sold, and by the mid-19th century the castle had fallen into ruin. During the Irish Civil War in the 1920s, the castle was occupied by anti-treaty forces artillery fire further damaged an already dilapidated castle.

By the late 20th century Kilcash Castle was in a dangerous state of repair, and it was sold to the State by the trustees of the Ormond estate for £500 in 1997. It is undergoing extensive structural repairs to save it from collapsing. But this means it is covered in scaffolding and the site is closed off to visitors.

The author of the popular Irish poem and song Cill Chaise (Kilcash) casts himself back in time to mourn the death of Margaret Butler, the former Lady Iveagh, in 1744. Her death moves the writer to lament her tolerance and to compare the cutting down of the woods of Kilcash with the destruction of the Gaelic way of life.

But the woods were not destroyed by the English, but through their sale by the Butler family, who needed the income to supplement their new lifestyle in Kilkenny Castle.

Traditionally, the poem has been attributed to Father John Lane, Parish Priest of nearby Carrick-on-Suir, who was educated for the priesthood at the expense of the former Lady Iveagh, the deagh-bhean or good lady in the song. However, the dating is misplaced, for Father Lane died in 1776 and the sale of the timber at Kilcash was not advertised in local newspapers until 1797.

Although the timber was sold off between 1797 and 1801, the earliest manuscripts of the text do not appear for another 40 years, which means Cill Chaise was written no earlier than the early 1800s, but perhaps much later. The air seems to be Bliadhin ’sa taca so phós mé (This time twelve months I married), which was collected by George Petrie in Clare and published in 1855.

The best account Kilcash, including the history of the castle, the church, the churchyard, the poem, and the graves, is given by John Flood and Phil Flood in their book Kilcash, A History, 1190-1801 (Dublin: Geography Publications, 1999).

Now what will we do for timber,
with the last of the woods laid low?
There’s no talk of Cill Chais or its household
and its bell will be struck no more.
That dwelling where lived the good lady
most honoured and joyous of women
– earls made their way over wave there
and the sweet Mass once was said.

Ducks’ voices nor geese do I hear there,
nor the eagle’s cry over the bay,
nor even the bees at their labour
bringing honey and wax to us all.
No birdsong there, sweet and delightful,
as we watch the sun go down,
nor cuckoo on top of the branches
settling the world to rest.

A mist on the boughs is descending
neither daylight nor sun can clear.
A stain from the sky is descending
and the waters receding away.
No hazel nor holly nor berry
but boulders and bare stone heaps,
not a branch in our neighbourly haggard,
and the game all scattered and gone.

Then a climax to all of our misery:
the prince of the Gael is abroad
oversea with that maiden of mildness
who found honour in France and Spain.
Her company now must lament her,
who would give yellow money and white
– she who’d never take land from the people
but was friend to the truly poor.

I call upon Mary and Jesus
to send her safe home again:
dances we’ll have in long circles
and bone-fires and violin music;
that Cill Chais, the townland of our fathers,
will rise handsome on high once more
and till doom – or the Deluge returns –
we’ll see it no more laid low.

The Romanesque doorway in Kilcash Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

Saint Chad, who died on 2 March 672, was a prominent seventh century Anglo-Saxon church leader, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians or Lichfield. Saint Chad is a saint in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, who all celebrate his feast day today [2 March]. He features strongly in the work of Venerable Bede and is credited, alongside his brother Saint Cedd, with introducing Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.

Much of what we know about Saint Chad comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, who garnered his information about Saint Chad and Saint Cedd from the monks of Lastingham, where both were abbots.

Saint Chad was one of four brothers, all active in the Anglo-Saxon church. The others were Cedd, Cynibil and Caelin. Chad seems to have been younger than Cedd and the four brothers seem to have been from a family of Northumbrian nobility or ruling class. However, the name Chad is Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon in origin and is found in the personal names of many Welsh princes and nobles.

Bede tells us that in his early life Saint Chad was a student of Saint Aidan in his monastery in Lindisfarne, along his own brother, Cedd. Chad later travelled to Ireland as a monk, before he was ordained as a priest.

Bede says Saint Chad and his companion Egbert travelled together to in Ireland while Finan and Colmán were Bishops at Lindisfarne, which indicates they went to Ireland later than the death of Aidan, in 651. Egbert later recalled that he and Saint Chad “followed the monastic life together very strictly – in prayers, in continence and in meditation on Holy Scripture.”

Saint Chad’s time in Ireland fits into period 651-664, for in 664 he was back in Northumbria to take over from his brother Cedd, who was stricken by the plague.

During this lifetime, there was continuing conflict between Northumbria and Mercia. Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, continually campaigned against Northumbrian rulers, usually with the support of the Christian Welsh princes. In 641, Penda inflicted a crushing defeat on the Northumbrians, killing King Oswald. Northumbria was not fully reunited by Oswald’s successor, Oswiu, until 651. Oswiu then defeated and killed Penda in 655, causing the decline of Mercia for a more than a decade, and allowing the Northumbrian rulers to intervene in Mercian affairs.

Bede does not conceal the fact that Saint Chad departed from Roman practices in vital ways – before and after the Synod of Whitby. But the course of Saint Chad’s life between his time in Ireland and his emergence as a Church leader is unknown, and fresh details emerge again only with Bede’s account of Cedd’s career and the founding of their monastery at Lastingham.

The Saint Chad Gospel (top left) and the Staffordshire Hoard, found in a field near Lichfield, show the intimate links between the Celtic world and the Anglo-Saxon world of Northumbria and Mercia

Saint Cedd became a prominent figure in the Church in Northumbria while Saint Chad was in Ireland. In 653, he was sent by Oswiu on a difficult mission to the Middle Angles or Mercia. He was recalled after a year, was sent on a similar mission to the East Saxons, and was consecrated bishop soon after. Later, Saint Cedd became Abbot of Lastingham.

Saint Chad reappears on the Church scene in 664, shortly after the Synod of Whitby (663-664), when many Church leaders had died of the plague. When Cedd died, Saint Chad succeeded him as the Abbot at Lastingham.

When Saint Colmán, Bishop of the Northumbrians, left for Scotland after the Synod of Whitby decided against him, he was succeeded by Tuda, who lived for only a short time after.

Saint Chad is consecrated a bishop ... an illustration in the tiles in the chancel of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Later, Saint Chad was invited to become Bishop of the Northumbrians by King Oswiu. Saint Chad travelled first to Canterbury for his consecration, but found that Archbishop Deusdedit had died and not been replaced. From Canterbury, he then travelled to Wessex, where he was consecrated by Bishop Wini of the West Saxons and two Welsh bishops.

Bede tells us that as a bishop, Saint Chad visited continually the towns, countryside, cottages, villages and houses in order to preach the Gospel.

In 666, Bishop Wilfrid returned to his diocese to find he had been replaced as bishop by Saint Chad and asserted his episcopal authority by going into Mercia and as far as Kent to ordain priests.

In 669, a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, arrived in England. He instructed Chad to step down in favour of Wilfrid. But Theodore was so impressed by Chad’s show of humility that he confirmed his episcopal consecration at the same time. Saint Chad then retired gracefully and resumed his post as Abbot of Lastingham.

Saint Chad (centre) on the West Front of Lichfield Cathedral, between King Richard II of England and King Penda of Mercia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Later that same year, King Wulfhere of Mercia, the Christian son of Penda, requested a bishop for Mercia. Archbishop Theodore called Saint Chad out of his retirement in Lastingham.

Saint Chad is placed on horse by Archbishop Thedore of Canterbury ... an illustration in the tiles in the chancel of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Archbishop Theodore was greatly impressed by Chad’s humility and holiness, including his refusal to use a horse, walking everywhere instead. However, despite his regard for Saint Chad, Theodore ordered him to ride on long journeys and on one occasion even lifted him into the saddle.

Lichfield Cathedral lit up at night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Chad now became the fifth bishop of the Mercians, with a territory centred on the middle Trent and lower Tame – the area around Lichfield, Tamworth, and Repton. Because Wulfhere donated land in Lichfield for Saint Chad to build a monastery, the centre of the Diocese of Mercia became settled on Lichfield. Lichfield was beside the old Roman road of Watling Street, the main route across Mercia, and a short distance from Mercia’s main royal centre in Tamworth. But the Diocese of Mercia was expansive, stretching across England, from coast to coast.

Saint Chad’s monastic house in Lichfield may have been similar to the monastery in Lastingham, and was partly staffed by monks from Lastingham. Indeed, Saint Chad remained Abbot of Lastingham for the rest of his life.

When he became bishop, Saint Chad set out to initiate much missionary and pastoral work in Mercia, and, according to Bede, he governed the diocese “in the manner of the ancient fathers and in great perfection of life.” He built a small house at Lichfield, a short distance from the church, large enough for his eight disciples.

However, Saint Chad only worked in Mercia for 2½ years before he too died of the plague on 2 March 672. He was buried at the Church of Saint Mary, which later became part of Lichfield Cathedral.

Many years later, his friend Egbert told a visitor that someone in Ireland had seen the heavenly company coming for Saint Chad’s soul and returning with it to heaven. However the story is also told of Saint Owini the hermit of Lichfield (4 March)

The Chapel of Saint Chad’s Head in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

According to Bede, Saint Chad was venerated as a saint immediately after his death, and his relics were translated to a new shrine. There he was revered throughout the Middle Ages. His tomb was in the apse, directly behind the high altar of the cathedral while his skull was kept in a special chapel, above the south aisle.

At the dissolution of the shrine at the same time as the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, Canon Arthur Dudley of Lichfield Cathedral removed and retained some relics. They passed from him to his nieces, Bridget and Katherine Dudley, of Russells Hall. In 1651, they were found again in the home of a dying farmer, Henry Hodgetts, who gave them to the Jesuit priest who heard his last confession. They were later moved to the Seminary at St Omer, in France.

In the early 19th century, the relics came into the possession of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes of Aston Hall, near Stone, Staffordshire. After his death, they were presented to Bishop Thomas Walsh, the Roman Catholic Vicar Apostolic of the Midlands in 1837 and were enshrined in Saint Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, in a new shrine designed by Augustus Pugin.

The Chapel of Saint Chad’s Head in Lichfield Cathedral recalls that the saint’s skull was kept here until the Reformation. The site of his medieval shrine is also marked in the cathedral.

Saint Chad is being celebrated in Lichfield Cathedral today at Morning Prayer in the Shrine Chapel (8.45 a.m.), the Eucharist (12.30) and Solemn Evensong (5.30 p.m.). But the Patronal Eucharist is being celebrated in the cathedral tomorrow (Sunday 3 March) at 10.30 a.m., when the preacher is the Very Revd Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury, and the setting is Palestrina’s Missa Brevis.

Saint Chad’s Well, where Saint Chad is said to have baptised his converts, is in the churchyard at Saint Chad’s Church close to Lichfield Cathedral.

When Saint Chad died in 672 pilgrims began to visit his shrine. In 700, Bishop Hedda built a new church to house the saint’s bones. From 1085 into the 12th century, the Saxon church was replaced by a Norman cathedral, and then by the Gothic cathedral begun in 1195.

Pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint Chad continued for many years. The cathedral was expanded by the addition of a Lady Chapel, and by 1500 there were as many as 20 altars around the Cathedral.

All this changed at the Reformation, and the cathedral was severely damaged during the Civil War, coming under siege three times in the mid-17th century.

Bishop Hacket restored the cathedral in the 1660s, and William Wyatt made substantial changes in the 18th century. From 1855-1878, the cathedral architect Sir George Gilbert Scott was responsible for its successful restoration to its mediaeval splendour.

Today, Lichfield Cathedral still stands at the heart of Lichfield Diocese and is a focus for the regular worship of God, the life of a thriving community, the work of God in the wider world, and for pilgrimage.

This year, throughout Lent, Lichfield Cathedral is hosting a Stations of the Cross Exhibition by Ghislaine Howard. This is a unique sequence of paintings and drawings and is on display throughout Lent and Easter until 8 April.

These 14 large monochrome paintings, completed in 2000, are the culmination of 10 years sustained exploration by the artist, charting Christ’s journey along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary.

Lichfield Cathedral is also hosting a Lent Lecture Series this year. The next lecture is on Thursday next (7 March) when Paul Spicer, the composer and conductor, speaks on “The Musical tradition of the Passion.”

The present bishop of Lichfield, the Right Revd Jonathan Gledhill, is the 98th Bishop of Lichfield.

Almighty God,
from the fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ,
you called your servant Chad
to be an evangelist and bishop of his people:
give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature,
humble spirit and prayerful life,
that we may truly commend to others
the faith which we ourselves profess;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Chad and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Inside Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Tomorrow (3 March): John and Charles Wesley and the Third Sunday in Lent.